The three persons arrested for the recent death of PO3 Danilo Malones in Cauayan, Negros Occidental, were tagged by the military as members of the New People's Army Special Partisan Unit who were on a test mission.

Lt. Col. Romeo Basco, 61 st Infantry Battalion commander, yesterday said the arrested suspects, who recently graduated from a course of Special Partisan Unit operations of the New People's Army, had been ordered by Reniel Cellon, alias Ka Kumpol, secretary of the Komiteng Larangan-Southwest, to liquidate Malones.

Senior Supt. Rosendo Franco, provincial police director of Negros Occidental, however, said they are still investigating the affiliations of the arrested suspects, if any.

The arrest of the three, identified as Russel Langcoyan, 18; Felipe Domdom, 26; and his brother, Robert,39, in Brgy. Lina-on, Cauayan on Sunday, was a joint effort of the 61 st Infantry Battalion, 614 th Provincial Mobile Group and town policemen led by Senior Inspector Louie Figueroa.

A 9mm pistol was also recovered by the soldiers.

Franco said Langcoyan was positively identified by Arnie Malones, wife of the slain policeman, and several other witnesses as one of the two gunmen who shot the victim, with Felipe Domdom, alias Aming as the look-out and back-up assassin.

However, the arrested suspects denied any participation in the killing.

Figueroa said it was Langcoyan who took the .45 caliber pistol with three magazines of ammunition and the wallet of Malones, before fleeing from the scene of incident.

Witnesses said the gunmen, who were armed with .45 caliber and 9mm pistols, also introduced themselves as members of the NPA and were quoted as saying “Test mission ito, wag maki-alam ang hindi kasali,” police investigations showed.

Basco acknowledged the help of the community in the arrest of the suspects. Without the information they gave to the military and police, their capture would never have taken place, he added.*GPB

back to top